Thursday, June 24, 2010

I had a great first line ready for this blog. It was: "Now that the sun is in Gemini, I think more and more about blogging." But it will have to remain a facebook update. The sun is no longer in Gemini.

Why am I starting a blog, when there are so many other astrology blogs in the world? For many reasons, but the main one is that I want to heighten my own consciousness of sky patterns. And writing does that, at least for me. When I write about something, I come to know it in a deeper and more intimate way.

And so in writing, I want to learn, and in learning, I want to make change. I've been an astrologer for forty years, and I love my work. But I also want to examine the assumptions that all of us astrologers make, and to see if I can use my own experiences to break through into new ways of thinking.

And so I am starting this blog even though Mercury is making some mean-looking aspects today, squaring Saturn and moving towards the square of Jupiter/Uranus.

And the Mercury/Saturn square is living up to its reputation in many ways.

For example, my spouse just called me from the office and told me that she is swamped with work, and had to reschedule her physical therapy appointment.

And I just updated my website and spent a fruitless hour trying to link something to something on the same page. (When I searched for the answer, I found out that it's a limitation of the program I'm using.)

And I haven't studied German yet today, and Saturn is scolding me for that. ("Why are you doing this? You should be studying German!") I live in Germany, so I try to make studying German a daily thing.

So clearly the Mercury/Saturn square is affecting me, and yet I plug on, writing this blog. Because even though Saturn, the stern Crone planet, wants me to stick to my language lesson routine, this blog is also something I've been meaning to do for a long time. It's about time. Saturn reminds me that my time in this skin is finite, bounded by days and years. If I don't write this now, I might wake up one morning and say, "I always meant to start a blog. I wonder why I never did?"

And in the middle of that last paragraph, my spouse called me to ask my opinion on an email she was writing. Was it worded too strongly? I told her this morning that Mercury was coming up to the conjunction of her Mars and she should watch out for conflict-prone situations.

Back to the blog. What's that I was saying? Oh yes. Mercury and Saturn. Delays relating to communication. Questions. Insecurities. Organizational hassles. Inaccessible information. Systems with limitations. Overly rigid rules.

But Saturn is also about structure. Saturn builds things that last.

This is such a powerful moment in time, and that's why I'm starting this blog now - even though I have lots of very Saturnine doubts about whether it will really work. But in two days, the full moon will bring a lunar eclipse. Six planets, plus the nodes, will be in early cardinal signs.

Mercury, the sun, and the south node will be together in Cancer. (Juno is there too.) Ranged across from them will be the moon, Pluto and the north node in Capricorn. At right angles to them will be Jupiter and Uranus in Aries. And on the other side of the wheel, Saturn in Virgo is still a player, turning this configuration into a grand cross.

Only Neptune has bowed out of this grand cross. And she has her own little coterie, as she's conjunct Chiron and the Black Moon Lilith.

When have I ever seen so many of the outer planets involved in a grand cross? No wonder astrologers everywhere are running around in a frenzy. It seems clear that we are at a pivotal historical moment.

(Aside: the Mercury/Saturn square wrenches me back to the present moment, as I realize that my usual way of cutting and pasting text doesn't work here. I laboriously retype a paragraph. I wonder if I'm spelling "laboriously" right and look it up. This could not be more Saturnine.)

So, let me find my way back to the pivotal historical moment. Which way will we pivot? The closest planet to the full moon will be Pluto, and Pluto rules power, transformation, and yes, oil. Is this oil spill the spark that changes the way we deal with power? Or have we turned an ecological corner, and damaged more than we can fix?

I know something new is starting. I have to say that that Jupiter/Uranus conjunction really turns me on.

Okay, now it's clear that this blog is going to be for fellow astrologers! Am I limiting myself too much? There's the Mercury/Saturn square again, questioning everything, refining the structures that I'm putting into place.

But it does turn me on. That Jupiter/Uranus conjunction is beautiful. It's exciting pioneer energy, it's a new beginning, it's rash and crazy and reminds me of my misspent youth. Here I am, a white-haired woman of almost sixty, quite respectably married to my partner (although we wouldn't be so respectable if we lived in the US, since we're both women). But why am I getting excited by the rebel energy of that Jupiter/Uranus conjunction? What do I expect it to do for us?

Am I assuming that there will be a hero? Aries is the sign of heroes. Do I think someone will come charging out on a white horse and save the day? (I am actually fantasizing a tribe of Amazon aliens, if you must know.) Or do I think we will all become a little more heroic?

And this is a grand cross. Every planet is dealing with several hard aspects. Can Jupiter/Uranus in Aries cope with the heavy weight of Pluto in Capricorn? Will it be broken by the pressure? After all, Capricorn is the sign of Time itself. Capricorn has the weight of centuries of tradition, and this is where Pluto is drawing its power. Can the fresh young energy of Jupiter/Uranus in Aries break through that?

Time will tell. It's always time that does the telling. And so that's why this blog is going to be about time.